It is widely recognized that diet is important to the health and psychological well being of human beings. Choice of types and amounts of food is an important factor in maintaining or modifying body weight.
Weight reduction diets have become extremely popular and many regimes have been proposed. Many such regimes are based on the simple proposition that in order to lose weight, a person must eat food having fewer calories than she/he requires. The number of calories required by an individual is determined by his/her weight and level of activity. A heavy or active person requires more calories than a light or inactive person.
In order to establish the number of calories that a person requires in a day to support her/his energy demand, a value, termed the basal metabolic rate (BMR), is multiplied by a factor determined by the activity level of the person. The value of the BMR is dependent on the sex and weight of a person and tables of this data are readily available to those skilled in the art of dietetics.
When a person is following a conventional calorie intake restriction diet (known colloquially as "counting calories"), his/her daily calorie demand is determined from her/his BMR and activity level. For instance, a moderately active woman weighing 60 kg would have a BMR of 5565 kJ/day and an activity factor of 1.3 giving a daily requirement of 7234 kJ. In order for this person to lose 0.45 kg (1 lb) in one week, her daily calorie intake must be restricted to 5142 kJ.
The present inventors have established that merely "counting calories" is not ideal and that other factors should be taken into account. However, taking into account additional factors requires the dieter to perform more complex mathematics which is difficult in the bustle of daily life.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide an apparatus whereby a diet regime, more complex than mere "calorie counting", can be readily implemented.
Various health organizations have provided dietary guidelines, which take into account health and weight considerations. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services issued "Dietary Guidelines for Americans in 1995". The recommendations include eating a variety of foods and decrease of caloric intake. A diet low in saturated fat, and cholesterol is recommended, as is an increase in consumption of grains, fruits and vegetables. Other writers in the field have focused on the benefits of low fat/high fiber diets. See, e.g., "Live Well The Low-Fat/High-Fiber Way", a food plan of the American Health Foundation. While such studies and publications provide detailed analysis of some foods, it is difficult for an average individual to implement these recommendations.
These difficulties have been addressed by detailed programs developed by health professionals. One such plan is the FAT and FIBER PLAN developed by Weight Watchers International, Inc. The plan provides daily guides, food lists and menu ideas. A minimum number of fiber grams and a maximum number of fat grams are allotted each day. Food labels used to gather nutrition information and implementation of the plan involves use of a "tracker" to tally the fat and fiber grams, units of food in the various categories and bonus calories in the foods consumed during the day.
In spite of the value and success of such a plan, there is a need for a weight control or modification process which is more simply and easily implemented by the individual, while accounting for current dietary recommendations of health authorities.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a dietary control process which accommodates a wide variety of food preferences, current body weights, body weight objectives, food properties and serving sizes.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process of food selection which is easily mastered by an individual seeking to maintain or modify his or her body weight.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process of food selection which involves minimal study, computation and record keeping by an individual seeking to maintain or modify his or her body weight.
It is a further object of the present invention to express the dietary contribution of each of a wide variety of food servings into a single numerical value, and use those values in an easily implemented plan of body weight management.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide mechanisms for the easy computation of such a single numerical value, based on various nutritional characteristics of a wide variety of food servings.
These and other objects and features will be apparent from the following description of the subject invention.